Report: Latinos overrepresented as crime victims and in justice system

Existing research on Latino victimization rates and their treatment in the California criminal justice system paints “a troubling picture of cumulative disadvantage” for community members and their safety, according to an advocacy group’s report.

Latinos, today the largest ethnic group in the state, are significantly overrepresented not only in the state’s courts, jails and prisons but also as victims of crime, according to “Latino Voices: The Impacts of Crime and Criminal Justice Policies on Latinos” released Tuesday by Californians for Safety and Justice.

“What we know based on this report is that Latinos have been disserved by current criminal justice practices,” Lenore Anderson, the nonprofit organization’s executive director, said before a public forum at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. “Unless and until we start to incorporate the experiences of the Latino community in our policy priorities, we’ll continue to see both overincarceration rates as well as probably disproportionate rates of victimization.”

Californians for Safety and Justice, an advocacy organization that aims to increase public safety and reduce waste in the state’s criminal justice system, commissioned Roberto Suro, director of USC’s Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, to compile and analyze much of the report’s data. The limited research that exists indicates that three decades of a failed system has particularly harmed Latino communities, Suro said.

Among the findings cited are that Latinos were murdered in California in 2011 at twice the rate of whites (5.1 per 100,000 compared to 2.4) and the rate was even higher for Latinos under the age of 30 (6.1), according to the California Attorney General’s Office. Firearms were the cause of Latino murders nearly 73 percent of the time that year versus 54 percent of the time for whites. And murdered Latinos were more likely to have been killed by strangers than were whites (40.5 percent vs. 26 percent), according to the Attorney General’s Office.

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Latinos have also reported being more likely to experience multiple crimes.

“In looking at all these results, I don’t think you have to find systemic racism or adopt a position of victimization to find that Latinos suffer disproportionately,” Suro said. “I don’t think you have to say Latinos were blameless — they weren’t — to say they were ill-served and disproportionately ill-served and that their communities suffered disproportionately as a result of these policies.”

A 2011 federal report found that Latinos, more than any other ethnic group, were convicted of offenses receiving mandatory sentences, or those with required penalties. Latinos have also faced unequal treatment while awaiting trial in the justice system regardless of guilt, Suro said. A 2005 analysis of felony defendants in urban courts found that Latinos were less likely to be released on their own recognizance, more likely to be denied bail, and issued significantly higher amounts than African-Americans or whites under similar circumstances, according to a Justice Quarterly article.

Those who are in jail while awaiting trial can end up copping pleas in order to get out or have difficulty amounting a defense because of limited access to attorneys, witnesses and their community, Suro said.

“It ends up being a pipeline to incarceration that begins at the police station in the moments after arrest,” he said. “One in which Latinos are particularly vulnerable by virtue of language, income, lack of knowledge of the system.”

While the consequences were severe and disproportionate for Latinos, the results for African-Americans were even worse by many measures, Suro noted.

The report argued that there is a significant need for more intentional data collection of Latino populations. The justice system should provide culturally competent and Spanish-language services to meet the community’s needs and improve support and services for Latino survivors of crime. Underlying health problems such as drug, alcohol or mental health issues, which can contribute to criminal activity, also need to be addressed, the report stated.

“What we see in the Latino community is limited access to mental health treatment and drug-based programs,” Anderson said. “Latinos have lower health insurance rates than other Californians. Investing in health solutions that address those drivers (of crime) would be specifically beneficial to the Latino community.”